Borderlands 4 PC Preview
The fourth instalment in the venerable Borderlands series is only a few weeks away from hitting the streets, and I was lucky enough to get to play a short preview of the game ahead of its release.
Taking place a few hours into the game, the preview focuses on an early mission that sees our vault hunter of choice leading the Crimson Resistance on an assault on the Fortress Indomita.
As in previous games, there are four characters to choose from, with each being a unique class. I spent most of my time with Vex, the Siren. Imbued with mysterious powers, a Siren can manifest ghost-like entities to fight alongside them. Vex is no different here, and the build I was using could summon up to three apparitions at once, with each being either melee or ranged in their focus.
The bulk of the experience was focused on combat, which remains largely very similar to that seen in previous entries into the franchise. There are a few changes that I’ve noticed this time around, however. There’s a seemingly increased emphasis on movement; players can now dodge, air dash around, and generally have greater control over their mobility. Possibly the best new addition in this area is that of a grappling hook. It can be used to cover vast distances of the map quickly (though only at preset points) and for pulling items, such as explosive containers, towards you so that they can be thrown at unsuspecting enemies.
In the most frantic of moments in the preview, with an arena flooded with enemies, it almost had a DOOM Eternal-esque feel to it. Albeit without the intense focus on resource management, something that is seldom a problem in Borderlands.
Ammo is abundant, every crate, box, and container disgorging resources and weaponry. Borderlands’ trademark ‘millions of guns’ is still here, with every weapon having dozens, if not hundreds, of potential variations to potentially find. Whether or not these variations do enough to distinguish themselves from one another is another story, but some interesting combinations do turn up from time to time.
The highlight for me was a revolver-based sniper rifle that had an alt-fire, which turned it into a devastating rocket launcher for a few shots. It was incredibly satisfying to use and was in my hands for a great deal of time.
Healing has also had a slight overhaul. Along with the health kits that drop from containers and defeated enemies, players now have a portable healing item on a cooldown that can be used to get a quick boost to health.
If the preview area is anything to go by, then Borderlands 4 is shaping up to be another fantastic entry into the series. The changes to movement and combat along with small quality of life updates such as auto-looting ammo and money really let the game focus on what it does best – shooting bandits, creatures, and an eclectic cast of villains with a huge and diverse array of weaponry.
Borderlands 4 releases on PC and consoles on September 12th.
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